Trial delayed for alleged fake teen doc Malachi Love-Robinson

Malachi Love-Robinson leaves court after a hearing Wednesday morning, April 20, 2016. The teen is accused of posing as a doctor, operating New Birth New Life Medical Center in West Palm Beach. (Lannis Waters / The Palm Beach Post)

A judge on Monday agreed to delay the upcoming trial of Malachi Love-Robinson, the now 19-year-old accused of pretending to be a doctor and stealing money from at least one patient who visited his West Palm Beach practice.

Love-Robinson case was expected to go to trial next month, but Circuit Judge Krista Marx on Monday agreed to postpone the case until November – over prosecutors’ objections – so Love-Robinson’s attorney Leonard Feuer can pursue the viability of an insanity defense.

In a request filed last month, Feuer said the results of a court-ordered mental health evaluation for Love-Robinson led him to explore the option of forming a defense surrounding the teen’s mental state.

Marx on Monday also agreed to declare Love-Robinson indigent for court costs, which means the state will pay the nearly $1,500 cost of getting his personal medical records from St. Mary’s Hospital and for mental health experts to testify on his behalf.

According to court records, Love-Robinson’s family has been paying for him to undergo mental health treatment since his arrest in February, when a narcotics task force raided his West Palm Beach holistic medicine practice after he treated an undercover officer posing as a patient.

He was later rearrested on charges he allegedly forged a patient’s checks to pay towards a car and other bills.

Love-Robinson earlier this year turned down a three-year prison plea offer. He faces a minimum eight years in prison if convicted of 10 charges that include practicing medicine without a license, forgery and grand theft from a person 65 years of age or older.